PROVIDENCE — Three young adults stood Sunday afternoon in Grant’s Block on Westminster Street, reading what people have scrawled on one of two big chalkboards installed downtown labeled “Before I Die."

PROVIDENCE — Three young adults stood Sunday afternoon in Grant’s Block on Westminster Street, reading what people have scrawled in chalk on one of two big art boards installed downtown labeled “Before I Die.”

The board caught the attention of the students from Grove City College, located north of Pittsburgh, because they’ve seen the same public art installation in that city. And so they stopped to read the hopes and dreams of people in this city.

Heidi Allison, a 21-year-old senior, thought some of the local comments were more serious than those she had seen in Pittsburgh — such as “See cancer cured” — but others were funnier, she said. To that, Brendan Carter, another 21-year-old senior, added, “like, ‘Marry my cats.’”

But overall, Allison recognized universal themes she also saw in Pittsburgh: “Grow old with someone I love.” “Have a family.” “See the world.”

The three are visiting Rhode Island this college-break week to volunteer at the Providence Rescue Mission, a nondenominational ministry that has worked since 1999 to serve the homeless and those in need in Rhode Island’s urban centers. Their Christian college has been sending students to Providence to work at the mission for years now, maybe even since the mission began, Allison said.

Allison has been to Providence many times, including for a full semester of work at the mission last spring, and she loves the hopeful stories of people’s lives turning around. She has learned that the nonprofit’s work is growing because Rhode Island’s economy is suffering. She envisions a time, after graduation, during which she might move here to work at the mission.

“I get really excited being here,” she said. “I love being at the mission … being able to sit and hear people’s stories. I like how Providence is smaller than Pittsburgh, but has its own …” “Culture,” her friend, Cody Work, a 19-year-old sophomore, interjected.

The chalkboard, meanwhile, was serving its purpose. It got the three visitors thinking and talking.

It’s part of a three-year initiative called “PopUp Providence,” launched this week to enliven the city’s neighborhoods and to engage residents with interactive artistic and cultural projects. The citywide program is a partnership between the Providence Department of Planning and Development and the Providence Redevelopment Agency.

Other projects in this first year will include a “pop-up” music studio next spring in a vacant storefront, where Community MusicWorks will offer free music instruction to neighborhood youths and free community performances; a small “parklet” on Thayer Street with tables and plantings; life-size photo-collage figures installed in Trinity Square on Broad Street this fall to reflect the city’s cultural heritage and diversity; and two banners in Olneyville Square to help brand and market the neighborhood commercial district.

The “Before I Die” project began in New Orleans when artist Candy Chang painted the side of an abandoned house in her neighborhood with the phrase, “Before I die I want to …”, according to her website. The wall filled up within a day, and such walls have since been created in more than 25 languages in more than 60 countries.

As the three college students stood reading the wall on Westminster Street, there wasn’t room for them to chalk out their thoughts. When asked, though, they each had a ready answer for what they’d put there if they could.

“I want to matter,” Allison said. “I want my life to mean something and to give to wherever I am, whether here in Providence or back home.”

Work’s reflection: “I would like to show love to other people and let them know they matter.”

Carter rounded out the trio’s thoughts: “Live in a commune,” he said. “All you do is farm, and everyone loves each other. Of course, that’s a little idealistic.”

And off they went, to see other sights in the city before a busy week of preparing and bagging up Thanksgiving meals for people who have nowhere to go for the holiday or cannot get out of their homes.